Sharqiya Security Directorate had received notification that Mahmoud Mohamed Ibrahim, 27, was killed by a bullet and his brother Taha, 22, was injured and taken to hospital. The brothers were fighting off three men who were trying to steal the teacher's car, said state-run newspaper Al-Ahram's website.

Hearing the gunfire, Abu Hammad residents blocked the Abu Hammad-Ismailia road and caught one of the suspects and beat him to death, the website said, adding that they hung him from a lamppost and mutilated his body.

When the police arrived, the website reported, the man's dead body had been thrown on the ground naked. He apparently carried no identification.

The residents said thefts have been frequent recently and called for better security.

A similar incident took place around two weeks ago when the residents of a Sharqiya village hung two men from lampposts and stoned them to death after they allegedly killed a resident and stole his tuk tuk.